December 02, 2008

China discovers 208 mineral resource deposits in 2007

Interfax China cited China Ministry of Land and Resources said in the 2007 state land and resource bulletin released recently that China discovered 208 mineral resource deposits last year including 73 metal ore mines and 50 energy mineral mines.

The bulletin said China invested up to CNY 62.01 billion in geological exploration in 2007 representing a 25.2% rise compared to 2006. Government funding accounted for CNY 5.56 billion of the total investment.

The report said exploration last year substantially increased the known reserves of 77 types of resources. Increases included 1.211 billion more tonnes of oil, 697.4 billion more cubic meters of natural gas and 40.625 billion more tonnes of raw coal.

The Qulong Copper Mine in the Tibet Autonomous Region, China's largest copper deposit with 10 million tonnes of resource reserves was proved to contain 8.95 million tonnes of copper, 620,000 tonnes of molybdenum and 7,469 tonnes of silver reserves in 2007. The deposits were initially discovered in 2001.

In 2007 a large iron ore deposit was discovered 700 meters underground in Lucong in eastern China's Anhui Province, and a new iron ore mine with prospecting resource reserves of 10 billion tonnes was discovered in Qiaotou of Liaoning Province. The findings are expected to alleviate China's iron ore supply shortage.